Things seemed to have evened out in the Downeast Athletic Conference’s girls basketball scene as some teams lost players and others have gained talented youngsters.

The latter is certainly the case for the Washington Academy of East Machias girls.

WA is 9-3 after Monday’s 55-50 win over Sumner of East Sullivan – already two wins better than last year’s 7-11 campaign – and hasn’t yet lost on the road. That includes a 54-49 victory at Calais last week, the first time in several years the Raiders have defeated the Blue Devils.

No one seems to know when WA’s last win came against traditional powerhouse Calais, but it doesn’t seem to matter.

“I’ll have to ask [Calais coach Bob McShane] next time I see him,” said WA coach Frank Johnson, who attended UMaine-Machias with the longtime Devils’ boss. “I’m sure it’s been quite a while. It’s just very exciting for us.”

The win should also boost the Raiders in the Heal Point standings. WA was sixth in Eastern Maine Class C last week.

Washington Academy has just one senior, 5-foot-9 Lauren Govoni, in the starting rotation. Point guard Sara Rushforth is a sophomore. Lauren Govoni’s sister Erika, a sophomore, shares time at the off-guard spot with junior Sarah Livingstone. Ashley Tilton, a 5-10 freshman, is averaging about 11 points per game. Sophomore Mary Mawhinney, who is 5-7, averages about 10 points and 10 rebounds per game and usually garners the toughest assignment in the Raiders’ man-to-man defense.

And 5-11 freshman Megan Look adds about 10 rebounds per game.

“We have a lot of balanced scoring, so we don’t have any key offensive players,” Johnson said. “You can’t play a box-and-1 or triangle-and-2 [defense] on us.”

The youngsters have proven they can maintain their poise late in close games. Monday’s five-point win over Sumner came after the Raiders rallied in the second quarter, led by one point at halftime, and were ahead by three at the end of the third quarter.

“Every game for us is a close game,” Johnson said. “I just hope this group can get a game on the Auditorium floor.”

WA may have a young lineup, but there’s plenty of experience on the coaching staff. Johnson, who is in his second season with the Raiders, coached the Moody Bible Institute to a Division II national title in 1986. Assistant coach Mike Look recently finished a three-year stint coaching the Woodland boys. All told, Johnson said, the two have 58 years of coaching experience between them.

Local boys swim teams growing

While many swimming teams around the state and nation are seeing drops in the number of boys who choose to participate, several local teams are experiencing the reverse.

One of those squads is John Bapst of Bangor, which now has 13 boys.

“We had a lot of new swimmers come in this year, a lot of new faces,” Bapst senior James Peckenham said after last Friday’s meet against Orono. “We’re only losing two seniors with me and Joel Alex this year, so the team’s going to be strong in years to come.”

The most recent swimming rankings posted on the Maine Principals’ Association Web site date back to December, so it’s hard to gauge how competitive the Crusaders will be at the Class B state meet. Several Bapst swimmers show up in the top 20 of those rankings, however. Peckenham, Alex, William Brunton, Tyler Isherwood, Kevin Trainor, Kirk Nichols, Sam Rioux, Luke Perry and diver Isaac Forbes could all help Bapst rack up big points.

The Crusaders, who were seventh at states last year, also have three strong relays.

“A lot of our swimmers joined other [club] teams,” Peckenham said. “I think a lot of off-season work is one of the main determining factors in our success this year.”

Orono has also experienced growth in the past two years. Coach Gary Theriault said he relied on his squad to encourage their school mates to come out for the team because he doesn’t work in the school system.

The Red Riots have 14 boys on their team. Two years ago there were just seven.

“For us, the kids on the team went out and brought in their friends,” said Theriault, who teaches at the Penobscot Job Corps Center in Bangor. “… Somebody would come to see someone at practice, we’d grab them by the shirt collar and say we want you here tomorrow with a swim suit.”

Norwood aiming to continue

Jessica Norwood’s high school basketball career may be over, but the MDI senior is hoping to pick up the sport in college.

Norwood, a guard who is the only returning starter from the Trojans’ recent run of three straight Class B state titles, tore the anterior cruciate ligament and the meniscus in her right knee in a preseason practice. She had hoped to return during the season and even played for a few minutes in a game at Ellsworth, but it was too much for her knee and she re-injured the ligaments.

She had season-ending surgery in December and will be sidelined for the next six months.

“It’s so hard [to sit on the bench] because I was excited to play this year,” said Norwood, who was a Big East Conference Class B second-team honorable mention last year. “I wanted the chance to take control of the team. But that’s OK.”

Norwood was part of an MDI shooting effort in last year’s Eastern Maine Class B tourney quarterfinals that set a tourney record for 3-pointers in a game. She had four in that quarterfinal, and was shooting 43 percent from behind the arc during one stretch of the season.

Norwood said she is thinking about her college plans, and is considering Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.

The Mariners have collected a group of former Eastern Maine high school standouts, including Norwood’s former MDI teammate Shelley Gott.

“She’s said that she loves it there and it would be fun to play with her again,” Norwood said.

Norwood, an honor student, was MDI’s goalie in the soccer season and was one of the Trojans’ top softball players last year.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.